In a February 2010 presentation, Jane McGonigal, game designer and research and development director at the Institute for the Future, stated that “World of Warcraft” players have spent 5.93 billion years playing, solving problems in their virtual environment. McGonigal explained her goal to harness the focus of such gamers to solve important real-world problems. She describes gamers as becoming the ideal versions of themselves within a game, with the ability to focus their enjoyment and confidence to resolve conflicts in the game environment. McGonigal believes that if people worldwide could play more, not less, in the right game scenario, their experience could help solve some of the world’s biggest problems like hunger, poverty and global conflict.

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